Ed Bok Lee

Who is Ed Bok Lee?

Ed Bok Lee is an American writer. His most recent book, Whorled, won the 2012 American Book Award, and the 2012 Minnesota Book Award in Poetry. His first book, Real Karaoke People, won the 2006 PEN/Open Book Award, and the 2006 Asian American Literary Award.

Lee was raised in South Korea, North Dakota and Minnesota. He studied Slavic and Central Asian Studies at the University of Minnesota; Kazakh State Al-Farabi University in Almaty, Kazakhstan; Indiana University and the University of California, Berkeley. He received a Master of Fine Arts from Brown University. Recognition for his poems, fiction, essays and plays include grants from the McKnight Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board, Loft Literary Center, and National Endowment for the Arts.

He has worked as a journalist, phys. ed. instructor, bartender, script writer and business translator, and has shared his various work in journals, anthologies, and on stages across North America, Europe and Asia, as well as on public radio and TV, including MTV. Lee's plays, including Passage, El Santo Americano, St. Petersburg, and History K, have been seen at major regional and national theaters including the Guthrie Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Joseph Papp Public Theater, Theater Mu, Taipei Theatre, Trinity Repertory Company and the Walker Art Center.